The thing with *all* synthesizers (and really any other technologies) is that personal preference will vary widely from person to person. I have sold many synths that I do not personally prefer... some for sonics, some for interface, some for duplicity. What I know is much of this is my ear and situation at the time, some others will have completely different ideas. Thus I try to avoid the definitive, without-objectivity "this synth is a fucking turd" type opinions that encourage Gearslut-y multi-page flame wars (like I think happened with this review).

I don't disagree with preferences and some of his points are valid. However, I think that his synth reviews *overall* lean quite negative and are too personal vs. objective. And thus you get some opinions that, er, seem odd and conflicting at first.

For instance. The ESQ-1 is one of his best rated synths... but the D-50 has such a bad interface that he couldn't even bother to review it? I mean, not that the ESQ-1 interface is bad, but it's not one-knob-per-function type easy... and the D-50 isn't too terrible either, not too hard to wrap your head around. Same with the AX-80, he rates it as "superb". Where I couldn't stand its (to my ears) harshish sound, and well prefer sliders to the membrane-y editing which if I recall (it's been a while) was one parameter at a time. (Yes, the screen looks cool, but still.). So I sold the AX-80 rather quickly.

So basically these reviews are personal opinions. Fair enough, eh?

The A6, especially back in the day before it became "vintage" , generated a lot of love / hate type flame threads between those who connected with it and those who didn't. *shrug* I don't know why to be honest.

Me too. I totally understand it's very biased and opinionated, to the point of not being a review at all, but rather a rant of sorts.

Still, I enjoy his carefree attitude towards his readers and synth culture, and his demos are always quite interesting. Just an all around entertaining type.

Which is why I am very dissapoint he didn't make a video demo. And his audio demo was rather boring. Like he didn't try at all. Are you really going to hide behind the excuse it's a clunky interface? You program the DX7 but not the Andy? Me personally I thought the Andy would be straight down that dudes alley, considering all the possibilities. Especially the FM.

I think that his expectations were so high that when he had the unit in front of him he just couldn't let pass the negative points he found out. He said "You expected that the price & size will at least be a guarantee of perfection?" while these words are actually and without doubt from his own mind. This had a counterbalance in his rating. In extra, he says: Besides, I'm Polish, which means that if something is on a high pedestal, I need to throw some shit on it. LOL! So yeah a very subjective review as he points out while ranting.

I find also that he underrated some aspects from Andy's when obviously it is higher than most modern synths in the market. Examples:
Modern: 1, whereas it deserves at least 2 thanks to its wide architecture and its super tweakable effects section but indeed it doesn't have exotic digital effects or oscillators, so a 2 seems fair.
Plasticity: 1, again it deserves at least a 2, actually for the same reasons. A modern synth most often can create weird futuresque sounds and therefore it has great chances to create very different type of sounds.
Versatility: 1><2, unless it's a very specific or limited synth how can you rate the versatility of such synth that low?
UI: 1, well... you get it or you don't... i personally appreciate the little differences compared to most synths, it helps you act differently with it, the Mod Matrix for example, but it works perfectly and it is huge.

Well, is the Andy really a modern synth? It has been released recently but, appart the digital effects and the complex EGs, it only uses all means of vintage technology. So it's kinda unfair to judge it with the Modern ratings and comparing it to a modern synth.

In the end, there is the hardware quality problem... I've had problems too and I'm a first owner since 2004 if i recall correctly. For this reason, all in all i wouldn't rate it as a superb but at least a proper synth.

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